The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention(s). It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art, or material, to the presently described or claimed inventions, or that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of prescription medication dispensing devices and more specifically relates to a tamper-proof prescription medication dispensing device having a drug disabling chamber for destroying the prescription medication contained within the device if the device is tampered with by an unauthorized user.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to information provided by the National Institute of Health (NIH), nearly 20 percent of people in the United States have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons. In fact, prescription drugs are the second most commonly abused category of drugs (marijuana is first), far ahead of cocaine, heroin, and even methamphetamine. A dangerous practice, this abuse resulted in approximately 43 percent of hospital emergency admissions for drug overdoses in 2010. Further, the number of teens and young adults who were new abusers of prescription painkillers grew from 400,000 in the mid-1980s to 2 million by the late 2000s, according to a recent study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
New misusers of tranquilizers, which are normally used to treat anxiety or tension, increased nearly 50 percent between 1999 and 2009 alone. The ever-growing population of aging Baby Boomers and the elderly are also prime candidates from prescription drug abuse. There are many reasons for the increase in this type of drug abuse; the availability of the drugs, including online pharmacies and illegal street sales that make it easier to get the drugs without a prescription, even for minors, is a huge factor. Additionally, there is the perception that prescription drugs are safer than illegal substances such as heroin and cocaine. Unfortunately, most people do not lock up their prescription medications, nor do they discard them when they are no longer needed for their intended use, making them susceptible to misuse as well as theft.
Underlying all this is the fact that some prescription drugs are highly addictive; particularly when they are used in a manner inconsistent with their labeling or for reasons they were not prescribed. According to studies, the most abused prescriptions include, but are not limited to, narcotic painkillers like OxyContin or Vicodin, sedatives and tranquilizers such as Xanax or Valium, and stimulants like Dexedrine, Adderall, or Ritalin. As can be surmised from the above, more effective steps to curb prescription drug abuse are necessary to ensure that such statistics do not continue to rise.
Various attempts have been made to solve the above-mentioned problems such as those found in U.S. Pub. No. 2014/0074283 to Christopher Blackburn, U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,202 to Van Halfacre, and U.S. Pub. No. 2010/0228141 to Theodosios Kountotsis. This art is representative of prescription medication drug dispensing and regulating devices. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed.
Ideally, a tamper-proof prescription medication dispensing system should provide a means by which prescription medication can be destroyed when a dispenser is tampered with rendering the drugs useless for misuse and, yet would operate reliably and be manufactured at a modest expense. Thus, a need exists for a reliable tamper-proof prescription medication dispensing system to avoid the above-mentioned problems.